chicken tortilla soup

• 1 ripe avocado, cut into small pieces
• 2 ancho chili peppers, seeded
• 5 large tomatoes
• roasted chicken, torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 white onion, chopped fine
• cilantro, chopped fine
• 1 can tomato soup
• tortilla strips

In food processor pulse tomatoes and peppers until smooth. Combine mixture with tomato soup and cook over a medium low flame for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine avocado, chicken, onion, cilantro and tortilla strips in bowl, pour soup mixture over it and serve immediately. Note- if you can't find tortilla strips in the supermarket, look in either the produce section or near the salad dressings.

The dish: It's common to say that when people move from New York to points south their blood thins. I never saw evidence of this fact quite as astounding as when I was in Fort Lauderdale last August and had dinner with a good friend who is an empire state expatriate. As I was trying to battle the heat in shorts and sandals, he sat coolly in jeans and ordered the soup. I thought he was nuts until it was brought out; a bowl of fresh ingredients was placed in front of him as the attentive waiter poured a steamy tomato based liquid from a ceramic basin. It looked and smelled delicious enough that I immediately ordered my own bowl, and was amazed at the taste. We were sitting in Bar Zen, looking out on the rain forest garden that was home for the resident swans at the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure. Real life returned for my friend who had to go home and go to work the next day, but Kim and I hung around awhile longer; me reading by the pool while she got pampered behind the red door. Our stay was just what we needed to re-charge and relax, and the Bonaventure did a great job of making sure we did just that. We had many great meals there, and they all began with a bowl of tortilla soup. We've since been to a few other Hyatts and have tried the tortilla soup when it's available, and they're all good, but the Bonaventure is the best. I suspect that the chef at the Hyatt skips using Andy Warhol's favorite subject and instead achieves a velvety texture by adding crumbled corn tortillas to the simmering tomatoes, but I'm not sure. Either way, this was made on a weeknight when my own real life beckoned and I had to take a short cut. It was enjoyable, but certainly not as good as the Bonaventure's. We're booked to return for a long weekend in January, so I'm sure on those chilly Florida winter nights when it dips into the 60s, we'll enjoy many bowls of tortilla soup.

Thai-style chicken pumpkin soup

• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger (I used gourmet garden)
• 1 tablepoon chili pepper blend (gourmet garden again)
• 1.5lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 15oz can packed pumpkin
• 1/2 cup mango nectar
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 cups good quality chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• roasted unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
• cooked white rice (take out is best)

In a skillet over a medium flame brown onion, garlic and pepper for 3-5 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in ginger. In large crock pot combine onion mixture with chicken, carrots, pumpkin, mango nectar, lime juice, peanut butter, chicken stock and vinegar. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Place a mound of cooked rice in center of serving bowl and pour soup around it. Garnish with cilantro, green onions and peanuts.

The dish: I hate our local newspaper, and yet I've been a steady subscriber forever. One of my favorite things to do is to settle back with the Sunday paper and read through all the news and save the colored funnies for a grand finale. Somewhere in there I sort through the mountain of store circulars and coupons. Hiding beneath that yogurt coupon is page after page of useless crap, ranging from Yankee's Christmas ornaments and limited edition trains to elastic waistband comfort pants made from genuine polyester (accept no imitations). One day a few weeks back I saw an ad for a set of three crock pot cookbooks among all the other crap. Feeling a little adventurous I sent in my check and waited 3-4 weeks for my bounty to come in the mail. When they arrived I thumbed through them and was not shocked to see mostly recipes I had seen before. This soup was one of the few new ones that stood out. We decided to be daring and try something new at home. The result was phenomenal; this soup is a winner. It turned out to be not spicy or sweet, but rather very distinctive and comforting. It will most certainly grace the red room again. If you're reading this in the fall of 2009, please be aware that there's a shortage of canned pumpkin and you may have to drive to more than one store before you stumble upon some.

pork verde chili

• 4 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1lb boneless pork spareribs, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 jar of good quality verde salsa
• sour cream
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Combine beans, pork and salsa in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Garnish with cilantro and sour cream.

The dish: This is an easy recipe that comes across as more difficult than it should. Since there's only a few ingredients it's important that you use only the freshest and the best as the flavors will come through. I used Santa Barbara roasted tomatillo salsa and it was awesome. It was a bit more than some of the cheaper varieties, but well worth the added expense. We're quickly coming up on that time of year when it's cold and dark when we get home so walking into a warm dish in the crock pot is a great feeling. If you don't already have one I can think of a few reasons why you should part with the $30 and buy one.

basic hummus

• 2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
• cumin
• adobo
• fresh cilantro
• juice of one lemon
• pita chips

Place all ingredients but pita chips in food processor, pulse until smooth. Serve with pita chips.

The dish: There are times when I see some truth in the old saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", and then there are other times I think that my family's tree must be planted at the top of a large hill in an area that's prone to heavy winds. I was thinking this over just recently when my parents joined Kim and I for a weekend away in Wilkes-Barre PA to see The Royal Scam, the best Steely Dan tribute band out there. I invited the rents figuring that my dad would love to go as he went to King's College in Wilkes-Barre and has been a fan of Steely Dan for longer than I've been alive. My mom is not a fan of SD and for that reason alone I felt the hill next to the orchard grow steeper and the winds strengthen. Kim and I decided to make a pit stop in Scranton to look at fireworks (we didn't by any silly, that would be illegal) and have lunch at one of the last surviving Ground Round restaurants remotely within driving distance. The Ground Round holds lots of happy memories for us and we were so taken with nostalgia that I asked our waitress if we could purchase the ramekin our spinach dip came in as a memento. She happily brought us out our little dish wrapped up and ready for travel, a gift from everyone at the Scranton Ground Round. Later that night at the River Street Jazz Cafe (an awesome place to see a show with great music, food and staff), we all agreed that the plate that held our delicious hummus was unique. I must have gotten wrapped up in Steely's melodies after that, because next thing I knew our waitress was bringing out our dish wrapped up and ready to travel back to New York. Turns out my mom asked the same question I had a few hours earlier and the good folks at the jazz cafe were happy to see their plate go to a good home. Playing with my new food processor, hummus seemed like an obvious thing to make and what better way to photograph it then using the dish and the ramekin that suggests my family tree might just live in a flat orchard with only a gentle breeze.

hoppin' Juan

• 1 lb dried black eyed peas
• 1 lb chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage)
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped fine
• 1 orange pepper, chopped fine
• vegetable stock
• fresh garlic, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 serrano peppers (or any other hot variety), seeded and chopped fine
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Soak the beans overnight. The next morning, saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil for about 3 minutes, add hot peppers and turn flame off. Drain the beans, place in large crock pot. Add 1 container of vegetable stock plus one container full of water, onions and garlic mixture, and diced peppers, cook on high for two hours, then low for 6+. In the last hour of cooking add chorizo (it will already be cooked) and more liquid if needed. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

The dish: "Hoppin' John", as the bag of beans said, is a mixture of black eyed peas with Italian sausage and parsley. I had scored some great chorizo (Belmond Farms- awesome) and had designs of doing a dish like this before I ever saw the bag of Goya beans. I figured that the only material difference between hoppin' John and my dish was the slight Latin accent (not that kind of Latin) of the chorizo and cilantro instead of the sausage and parsley so I decided that "Hoppin' Juan" would be a good moniker. This was a great dish to come home to on one of the many rainy days that we've had recently and even tasted good cold as leftovers. For thousands of years people of all different cultures have believed that eating some variation of hoppin' John on New Year's Day would bring good luck in the coming year. Here we are at the midway point of this year and I hope that the good luck thing works as well now as it does in January. Have a great second half of 09 everyone!

black bean and corn salad

• 3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bag of frozen corn, thawed
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• sherry vinegar
• olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Whisk together vinegar, oil and lemon juice, add a small pinch of sugar if desired, set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl, pour dressing over the top and toss to coat.

The dish: Another variation on the bean salad theme, and as I look at it, very close to the confetti salad that was posted awhile back. Truthfully, I like the confetti salad better, but that has more to do with my preference of kidney beans over black beans. Both are tasty and easy to prepare and are a great source of all kinds of good stuff, so now that's summer's here try a salad that has a base of something virtuous like beans and isn't drenched in mayonnaise.

guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/4 of a lemon
• adobo
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Cut avocado in half lengthwise, taking care not to cut large pit in center. Remove pit and use spoon to remove green stuff (pulp?), then chop it finely. Place chopped green in bowl, add cilantro, juice of the lemon and a few shakes of adobo, stir until mixture is creamy with a few chunks. If you're not eating it immediately (moot point- who can pass up fresh guacamole?), store covered in the refrigerator with pit placed on top- this will help to keep it from browning.

The dish: There are few problems in life that are as pleasant to happen upon as finding a ripe avocado on your counter that needs to be used right away. We had some leftover cilantro in the fridge so the choice of what to do with our ripe friend was obvious. I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to guacamole, only a few fresh ingredients are really necessary. I've enjoyed it made by other people with everything from tomatoes to jalapeno peppers in it, but I really love the simplicity of the basic recipe. Be careful not to add too much adobo as corn chips are already as salty as Lot's wife and you don't want to instantly redline your blood pressure.